Border regions are those of greatest interest, for they are
regions of contact and therefore places where things happen.
This is a border region between the field of the librarian
and that of the teacher. Its activities are the sole
justification for the name "library teacher" bestowed upon
assistants in many of the homelier city districts. Here the
librarian must tread warily. He can not push or pull; he
must effect what he desires by making it attractive to the
reader. In the five following papers this function is
somewhat elaborated--a very modern phase of library work and
one most nearly concerned with its socialization.
PROBABLE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL OUTCOME OF THE RAPID INCREASE OF PUBLIC
LIBRARIES
A paper by Rev. Dr. Pierce, then editor of _Zion's Herald_,
a Methodist publication, read at the Lake George Conference
of the American Library Association in 1885. Notably free
from the caution and hesitancy then often appearing in the
public utterances of the clergy regarding popular libraries,
and full of belief that their power of guidance would make
them "powerful elements of culture."
Bradford Kinney Pierce was born in Royalton, Vt., February
3, 1819, and graduated at Wesleyan University in 1841.
Entering the Methodist Episcopal ministry, he was also
occupied for many years as teacher and editor, being agent
of the Sunday School Union in 1845-56, editing _Zion's
Herald_ in 1872-88 and then serving as librarian of the Free
Library at Newton, Mass., in addition to his other duties,
until his death, April 19, 1889. He has been called "the
Nestor of New England Methodism."
The free public library is now becoming the favorite posthumous
beneficiary of our men of wealth. Heretofore it has hardly been esteemed
respectable in the vicinity of Boston for a man of fortune to die
without leaving a generous bequest to Harvard College or to the
Massachusetts General Hospital. The city and town library is now
beginning to share liberally in these testamentary benefactions. The
college requires too considerable a sum in our days to be often
adequately endowed by the estate of one patron, but the library can be
established and be quite amply appointed by the accumulation of one
public-spirited citizen, and be made to become his most-honored and
permanent memorial. Every town of any size in our New England and
Northern States either has, or will soon have, one of these people's
universities, through the individual gift of a generous citizen, or by
public establishment.
This general gathering of large bodies of books in all our principal
towns, opened freely to all ages, can but produce a manifest influence
for good or evil in the community. The familiar and forcible response to
the objection made to the establishment of so many small colleges in the
land, rather than securing their consecration and abundant endowment and
appointment in a few centres, is that the "fresh-water institution," so
called, brings the opportunities for a liberal culture near to thousands
who could not otherwise be prompted to make the incident sacrifices to
secure an advanced education. The immediate presence itself of the
institution is an inspiration to study. So the presence of the numerous
libraries, with their wide-open doors to all, and their attractive
shelves, becomes a powerful incitement to those who otherwise would
hardly think of seeking enjoyment or profit in reading. The statistics
of these city and town libraries fully confirm this _à-priori_
presumption as to their influence in awakening and cultivating an
interest in books among all classes. And this influence of books upon a
reading community is very powerful. It is more subtle than human
companionship. The latter strongly affects and moulds the character; but
books reach us at lower depths. They inspire us more profoundly; they
touch our whole being, intellect, heart, and executive purpose; they
imperceptibly create or modify our ethical standards; they become our
models of life and conduct; they lay hold of our highest and most sacred
sentiments and color our views of the life beyond.
It can but be, where the circulation of these volumes reaches nearly
all our families and enters into the thoughts and emotions of every day
of the year, that manifest results for the better or the worse will
follow. Many thoughtful persons have been honestly anxious in reference
to the result of the experiment. The public press has sent out its
serious forebodings from the pens of those who have taken depressing
views of the matter, and alarming tracts have been published, giving
painful criticisms upon the contents of certain libraries, the nature of
special volumes found upon their shelves, and the amount of circulation
of works of fiction of not the most elevating, or even wholesome,
character. To all this we answer that these criticisms, whether well
founded or not, have not been without their influence in calling
attention to the most intelligent of our institutions. Their officers
are cultured gentlemen and ladies, clearly apprehending the relation of
the library to the intellectual and moral development of the community
and its true office in administering to the improvement, as well as
enjoyment, of its patrons. It is more and more becoming an educating
rather than a simply entertaining institution. It is every day becoming
more widely recognized that it is not intended to be a competitor with
the circulating library, but rather an antagonist, winning the patrons
of the latter to the reading and study of a higher order of literature.
While the majority of library managers do not take the extreme view that
has been strongly advocated by some quite intelligent library trustees,
that the public funds should not be used for the purchase of fiction,
which may be considered an intellectual luxury, but only for improving
and educating literature, they do seek to carefully sift the lighter
issues of the press, securing the best and the purest of this character.
They also study at the same time, through their accomplished officers
and assistants, in the use of the local press, through the cooperation
of the teachers of the schools and the leaders of public opinion, with
the aid of parents, to awaken especially in the minds of the young
people a taste for regular and substantial courses of reading in the
various departments of science, history, and _belles-lettres_. The
success that has attended these efforts is full of encouragement. Our
superintendents and librarians do not simply remain at their desks, or
stand behind their tables to respond to the call for books, but make
themselves felt in the community, aiding in the investigations of
students, assisting in the search for authorities, facts, and
illustrations, suggesting plans for interesting the youthful readers in
scientific or literary studies, and calling attention to the rich
accumulations upon the library shelves. The annual reports of these
institutions are constantly showing improvement in the character of the
reading in their several communities,--a gradual decrease in the lighter
works, and an increase in the call for books of art and science, of
travel and biography, of poetry and philosophy. A significant falling
off in the number of books taken from the library, in many places, is
noticed, while the patronage of the library is manifestly increased. The
works that are now selected are substantial, requiring thought and time
in reading. They cannot be hurried over in a day like the light novel,
and hence the decrease in the number of volumes read is a most
gratifying evidence of improvement in the quality of the reading.
The free library is becoming the effectual antagonist, also, of the
superficial news and story papers. Their "name is legion." They assault
the eye with their staring illustrations, and tempt the reader by their
cheapness. Especially at the close of the week, supplies of this trash,
with periodical sheets of a little higher order, but still superficial,
have been heretofore laid in for the hours of respite from labor on the
Sabbath. This light, disconnected, desultory reading, carried on through
all the unoccupied hours of the week, while it secures a smattering of
information, can but be of a very vicious intellectual tendency, not to
speak of its moral influence. The free library and its reading-room
offer without expense the perusal of the best periodical literature in
the land, and permit and tempt their patrons to secure, for the
unemployed hours of the approaching Sabbath, works of deep interest and
of an improving character.
We are confident that this multiplication of well-selected and
constantly growing collections of standard and current literature is
full of promise of good, and, as generally managed among us, is attended
with small and easily corrected evils. It is inspiring the establishment
of literary and scientific clubs, awakening the ambition and inventive
powers of our mechanics, encouraging a liberal and cultivating course of
reading among our school students, and affording an immeasurable amount
of pure and refining enjoyment throughout the community. We look upon it
as one of the significant and powerful elements of a higher and general
culture among the people, and prophetic of far greater and better fruits
in the future.